Thirst Unabated
by Aaron D
Summary: Vampires are loose in Spira! What will Tidus and Lulu do to stop them? I can't believe its COMPLETE!
1. Part One

  


Thirst Unabated

  
  


by Aaron D. Roberts

  
  


_"Clouds are cool," said the old blitzer as he floated horizontally along his astral plane of existence. _

"How profound," his son, standing upright, replied, smirking harshly. 

"Yeah, okay, it was lame." He gathered a lump of irisdescent fog that floated past, formed it into a shape resembling an ice cream cone, then shoved it into his mouth. "Doesn't taste like the real thing," he grunted. 

"It wasn't_ real," the younger one reminded him. _

"Yeah, well my mouth ain't real either," he countered. "You'd think I wouldn't notice the difference." Jecht punched another unoffending cloud passing by. 

"Bored?" 

"Hmmph," he agreed. 

Tidus formed a blue-and-white-streaked blitzball in his left palm. "Wanna toss the ball around?" 

"Hah!" Jecht laughed. "And have another one of those father-and-son moments? It's worse than that movie--what was it called?" 

"'Court of Dreams.'" 

"Right. Where that guy's father comes back from the dead out of that cornfield, and they start playin' catch with the blitzball, and everyone in the whole theater's burstin' into tears---what a joke!" 

Tidus bristled. "I loved that movie." 

"Yeah, and you probably cried a river at the end, right?" 

The younger man's eyes narrowed. "Actually, I---" 

"Figures." Jecht rolled over, facing away from his son. "Crybaby." 

"Okay," Tidus groaned. "If you're gonna be like this, I'll just head out." His body began to fade away. 

"No, wait!" Jecht said sharply, flinging a hand in his son's direction. "Sorry. It's just---sometimes it kinda sucks up here, you know?" 

"No problem," Tidus agreed. "I understand." He plopped down on a nearby cloud. "Sometimes, when I'm bored, I check up on my friends, y'know, see how they're doing." 

Jecht laughed shortly. "All two of my friends are already dead." 

"I'm amazed you actually made any friends at all." 

"Shut it!" 

*** 

Man, she hated Luca. In fact, the only city she hated more was Bevelle. Being a small-town girl herself, the bigger cities of Spira held little appeal for her. Plus, there were too many bad memories. Most of them recently. She let the glass door of the Arena slam behind her, not-so-accidentally into an innocent bystander attempting to walk through. On second thought, he wasn't a bystander--he was walking. She guessed that made him a "bywalker" or something. 

She saw the bywalker rubbing his nose, apparently where the glass pane had struck him. His annoyance was evident as he shot her the dirtiest of looks. "Sorry," she said empty-headedly, fluttering her eyelashes and flashing him a perky grin. He mumbled something to the effect of he must have not been paying enough attention and wandered off, seemingly convinced the whole affair was somehow his fault. That thought alone kept her entertained the entire five blocks she had to walk. 

"Hey, 'Lu," Wakka said the moment she walked in the door. "Didja get it?" 

"Yes," she said coldly. "I still don't know how you lost yours." 

"I don't need the lecture, ya? Just hand it over!" 

Picking the putty knife out of her handbag, she gave it slowly to the tall (though half of that was his hair) man. "Wedge says you have to give it back before next week." 

"Why?" 

"He said he and the others are going to paint the locker room." She grinned inwardly as Wakka involuntarily flinched. "Still having regrets?" 

"No," he said forcefully, as if trying to convince himself. "No. My career's _over_. It's time to move on. Dat's why I bought this place." He spread his hands. "It's gonna be beautiful!" 

"Hmm," she dissented, looking at the dropcloths, the two functional beer taps out of six, the indentations worn in the bar, and listened to the rhythmic clanking emanating from the men's restroom--that would be Rikku trying to fix the terminally broken toilet. "You're right. What a gem," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. 

"Yeah," Wakka agreed, not noticing, "once we finish spackling, and, uh, painting, and Rikku fixes the toilet--" 

"--and you replace the taps and buy a whole new set of glasses and stock both food and drink and maybe advertise and buy a sign---" 

"--oh, we got a sign!" Wakka interjected. Strolling over to a unusually-placed dropcloth near the bar, he swept the cloth away in a dramatic fashion. "Taa-daa!" 

What was beneath was, without question, the absolute worst attempt at signmaking Lulu had ever experienced. The large white placard simply read "Wakka's Place" in badly-painted red letters. The _s_, the _e_, and one of the _k_'s were backwards. 

"Whaddaya think? Good, ya?" 

"You know, Wakka, they have professional signmakers for a reason..." 

"What're you talkin' about?" 

"Oh, nothing, I suppose." She manuvered south and seated herself gracefully upon a barstool, one of the most complete components of the entire debacle. Just as she was about to relax, a shattering crash, for lack of a better word, shattered her calm. 

"The toilet blew up again," Rikku confessed, walking wetly out of the restroom. "I don't know what happened that time." 

"I thought you were a mechanical genius," Lulu observed. 

"Mechanics and plumbing aren't the one and the same, you know!" 

"Hey, don't sweat it, ya?" Wakka interrupted. "It's time for a break, anyway." He plopped down in one of the nearby booths and flipped on the television. Clearly, he was getting work done at a _phenomenal_ rate. 

_"...series of unusual deaths around Killika," the familiar announcer's voice said, "in which the bodies were decapitated and entirely drained of blood. Local authorities as yet have no leads on the killer, but..."_

"Oh, my," Lulu said, her voice hard, not with fear, but with recognition. 

*** 

_One year earlier..._  
  


The most amazing parts of the Moonflow were the puffballs of light that illuminated the water's surface and floated into the air. "Little light-thingies," Tidus called them, and they were only visible at just the right times, and only then if the surface was undisturbed. So, it was a rare occasion to see very many of them. A scant few were visible as Yuna's party disembarked from the shoopuf. 

The state of the companions' clothes ranged from mildly wet to fully soaked through as they hopped off of the basket that was placed atop the large animal and onto the platform. "Yuna okay?" Kimahri asked as he helped the young summoner down. It was a racial peculiarity of the Ronso that they were completely unable to use first- or second-person pronouns, though Lulu was convinced it was simply a stubborn habit that the mountain-dwellers refused to correct. 

"Yes," Yuna said shortly, releasing the Ronso's hand. 

"No," Auron disagreed shortly. "You're not all right. You're still shaken, as are we all." He turned away. "We'll rest here as long as necessary, then continue on." 

"How long is 'as long as necessary'?" Lulu whispered in Tidus's ear. 

"Perhaps two, three days," the veteran guardian replied from almost twenty yards away. "Or more, if needed." 

"How does he do that?" Lulu whispered again. 

"A superior guardian always pays attention to his surroundings," Auron answered. 

Tidus chuckled. "He's actually mellowed a bit," he said, following the red-clad warrior. "He used to be much worse than this." 

The orange flames crackled hungrily around Yuna's friends as they bedded down for the night. The ferryman had found them a open-air shelter which would protect them if it rained, but not from the wind. Not that the wind would be a problem---Yuna said it rarely was around the Moonflow. 

Wakka and Tidus were tossing the ball around; each one sitting cross-legged. The idea was to touch the ball as little and as lightly as possible, without budging from the sitting position. Apparently it was one of Jecht's old practice techniques, but Lulu couldn't see how it really helped develop the skills needed to play a three-dimensional sport in the water. 

Yuna sat off to one corner, Kimahri right behind her. No doubt she was contemplating the finality of her pilgrimage. Or perhaps she was thinking about their childhood together in Besaid, or the death of her father, or any number of other things. Auron was already asleep. Once it became dark, the old guardian had declared there was no further point in remaining awake and that everyone should get as much rest as possible. 

Finally they all drifted off. Ot, all of them except Lulu. Her and the rookie. "Not sleepy?" she asked. 

"Huh." He shifted around, still staring at the fire. "In Zanarkand, we usually don't sleep nights...at least, not most of the night." 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, at night, the whole city lights up." Tidus grinned. "Going to sleep wouldn't work anyway, so why try?" He paused for a moment. "But, seriously, at night, the city comes alive." His lips parted in a sly grin. "You'd really fit in there, Lulu. Especially with your taste in clothes." 

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not certain whether I should be offended or flattered." 

The blitzer grunted. "It's not like you believe me, anyway. Take the remark as you like it." 

She was taken aback at his seemingly instantaneous shift to melancholy. "What?" 

"No one believes me. For you, I guess, Zanarkand is some holy place or something." 

"Something," she agreed. 

"Right." He began staring into the dying flames once more. "But...for me, it's a living, breathing place. All of my friends are there--_were_ there," he corrected himself. 

"What of the rest of Spira?" Lulu asked him. "If you really did spend your entire life in Zanarkand, even the city of the past, you must have heard of some of the other regions---Bevelle, Luca, both of these cities have been around over a thousand years depsite their devastation." 

"I know!" Tidus shouted. Then, looking at the sleeping forms of his companions, he calmed himself. "I know." 

Lulu raised herself off the floor. "Let's go for a walk." She grabbed Tidus's hand and brought him to his feet as well. He nodded agreement and followed her out of the shelter. 

They walked side-by-side alongside the Moonflow. More of the "light-thingies" were around now, with the lessening in traffic on the water. They were both silent for a time. "You know," Tidus began, "none of us ever even talked about other cities." He shook his head. "In fact, we only played blitzball amongst ourselves. There were four teams---north, south, east, and west." 

"I wonder what that means," Lulu murmured. 

A lone gasp drew their attention. Sharing a quizzical look, the dashed toward the source of the odd noise. The two scampered through the sparse swampland, coming upon a strange-looking sight. A man was lying upon the shore of the Moonflow, apparently choking. He was grasping his throat, seemingly unaware of the pair. His skin appeared deathly pale in the moonlight, and his clothing was tattered and torn. 

"What's wrong with him?" Lulu demanded. 

Tidus knelt beside the ailing stranger. "He must be having trouble making the adjustment from breathing water back to breathing air," he explained. "A lot of novice blitzers--kids and rookies, have trouble with it at first." Tidus put his ear to the man's chest. "This sometimes works," he said to Lulu. The young guardian raised up and punched the pale man in the stomach. 

Water flew out of the pale man's mouth, gushing out and onto the soaked ground. He sputtered a few more times, then seemed to adjust. With wide eyes he looked at the two. "Thanks," he managed after a couple more deep breaths. 

"What happened to you?" Lulu asked, her eyes wide with interest. 

"Fiends," the stranger gasped. "On our boat. I tried to fight, but..." he coughed, then lost consciousness. 

Lulu and Tidus eyed one another. "I think I see some light out there," Tidus said. "It may be a barge." 

"Let's go," she said with conviction. Tidus leapt into the water, swimming with broad, powerful strokes toward the orange illumination. Lulu grunted with resignation and waded in after him. She hated swimming. Tidus left her behind quickly because of her inexperience. He and Wakka both had said it was much easier to swim underwater rather than on the surface, but she refused. The only thing she hated more than swimming was breathing water. It felt so--unnatural. Besides, she was basically defenseless in any kind of aquatic situation. Any magic she might summon would either fizzle out, be ineffective, or harm both her and her opponent. 

"You okay?" Tidus asked. Had she caught up with him? No, she saw instantly, he was lagging behind to help her. The experienced swimmer grabbed her right arm with his left and they both began swimming at what was a rapid pace for her, but no doubt far slower than he was used to. 

"All right," Tidus said, "we're here." And she saw that they were. A white wall was in front of them, presumably the aforementioned boat. Tidus flung an arm onto the grey metal railing, then hauled himself up. He extended a helping hand down to the mage. She grasped it and pulled herself up after him. "Get ready," he advised as she shook some of the water off her body. 

Tidus drew his sword. "We don't know what monsters might be here," he said, and began edging forward. They were evidently at the aft of the small ship. "Halt!" a voice cried from the fore. "Who goes there?" 

"Friends!" Tidus called foolishly. He should have remained silent! He had no clue whether they were friendly or not to the caller. The young athlete brazenly strode forward. "We heard there were fiends aboard! Do you need our help?" 

A pregnant pause. "Come forward, then, friends," the voice called without an ounce of trust. Tidus ran towards the foredecks while Lulu crept silently behind. 

A scene of mass horror awaited them. Human bodies littered the deck, and smeared blood decorated the planks. Only one stood erect amongst the carnage--supposedly the man who had spoken. He turned to them, and in the glow of the torch Lulu could see the blood that covered his face. Could it be the life spilled from his companions? 

"By Yevon," she swore. The man grinned at her open-mouthed, showing a pair of pointed canines. He hissed and lunged at Tidus. 

"Lulu!" Tidus called, dodging aside. "Watch out! He's a vampire!" 

She stared at the man-monster in utter confusion, not sure what defensive spell she should ready. "A vampire?" she asked. 

  
  
  
  


_**END PART ONE**_   
  



	2. Part Two

  


Thirst Unabated

  
  


  
Part Two  
  
by Aaron D. Roberts

  
  


A pair of fiercely glowing scarlet eyes was the only illumination around the small barge now that the final torch had fizzled out. Lulu could see the small glowing puffballs that naturally surrounded the Moonflow some distance away, but they provided no discernable help to her and her compatriot. 

"What should I do?" she asked. The mage had no idea what a "vampire" was, or what the key was to fighting one. 

"Stay away from him,' Tidus called from her right. By the shuffling of his feet she could tell he was moving erratically, possibly trying to confuse their foe. "Don't look in his eyes!" 

"Yes," came the calm, velvet tones of the strange man's voice. "Don't look into my eyes." 

Backing away, she heard a scuffle and then the shallow ripping of steel against flesh. A sharp hiss, and then another sound of contact. The vampire howled. "What's happening?" 

She heard both men grunt, then a hard packing sound as a blow was struck. "Lulu!" Tidus gasped. "Make a light! He can already see us!" 

She drew a ball of flame into her hand and held it aloft. The young athlete was on the ground, sword ready in his right hand, his left pressing into the vampire's chest, forcing his enemy backward. The vampire's mouth was open, shadowed horribly by the soft orange light, and his left hand was severed at the wrist. 

"A temporary difficulty," he chuckled, noticing the injury for the first time, "and one I can deal with after our...encounter is complete." He reared back, and suddenly Tidus was there, taking the opportunity to thrust his father's sword through the monster's torso. 

Their foe staggered backward, disengaging the weapon from himself as he went. "Look!" Lulu called. As the vampire drew in shuddering, uneven breaths, the gaping hole in his chest was narrowing, closing, until it was gone, as though it had never been there. He grinned at the two guardians. 

"Put away your little toy," he admonished the blitzer. "It's useless against me, anyway." He advanced slowly on Tidus, who used his sword to keep the vampire at bay. 

"Right," Tidus said absently, backing up a few steps. "Hey, Lulu! You remember what vampires are afraid of?" 

"How could I?" She shot back. "I never knew!" 

"Okay," he said, his voice barely audible to her on the other side of the foredeck, "vampires are afraid of the sun--no luck there--garlic? The galley's not too far, but probably not. The cross?" He held Jecht's sword in front of him, hilt-first so the guard formed a cross. 

"No dice," said the vampire, apparently enjoying the display. "Blade's the wrong shape." He indicated the inverted curve of the iron sword. 

"I've got it!" Tidus exclaimed. "If we go into the hold and shut the door, you can't come in unless we invite you in!" 

"I'm already aboard," the other man said. "That's good enough to satisfy the rules." 

"Well, then," Tidus said cockily, crossing his arms in front of his chest, "I guess 'Lu will just have to fry you with her magic fire." 

"What?" 

Starting a bit, Lulu figured out what she was going to do a split second before the vampire did. She flung the small fireball still burning in her palm towards the monster, putting as much spiritual force behind it as she was able. 

The fireball struck the vampire in the abdomen, spreading around his body as if it were doused in grain alcohol. Screaming, he flung himself over the rail of the boat, trying unsuccessfully to quench the flames. The burning continued as the vampire thrashed around in the Moonflow, finally crumbling to moist dust. 

"I think that got him," Tidus said. "I was pretty sure fire was one of their weaknesses." 

"Apparently," agreed Lulu. She surveyed the devastation on board the ship. "What do we do now?" 

Tidus thought. "Well, I'm sure there are more of them," he said, "there are far too many dead here for just the one. Most of what I remember about vampires I learned from the movies," he admitted, "so I'm not sure if it's all true or not, but if it is, these dead will all rise again in three days, so we've got to kill them." 

"Kill them?" asked Lulu. This was just too weird. "They're already dead." 

"If I recall correctly," he mused, "we either have to drive a stake through their hearts or cut off their heads." He brandished his sword. "You may want to wait in back." 

"Couldn't we just set fire to the boat?" 

Tidus nodded half-heartedly. "I suppose that would work." 

"Great," she replied, walking to the rail and vaulting over it. Shw swam towards the shore, hearing the veteran blitzer pass her by as she went. When both she and Tidus were standing on the bank, she raised her hand and shot a giant ball of flame at the barge. The two guardians watched as the boat floated, burning, downstream. 

"Look." She pointed towards the ground, where a set of bootprints were fresh in the wet mud. 

The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon as she and Tidus marched through the dense foliage. "Where do you think they're headed?" he asked. 

'I don't know," she admitted. "It doesn't look like they're headed towards Guadosalam. Of course, I hardly know anything about 'vampires.'" 

"Well," Tidus began, holding aside a low-hanging branch for her, "They have to drink blood to live, and, uh, they're usually evil, and they're immortal--unless you kill them. Also, they either die or get weakened by the sun, so they sleep in coffins." 

"And you aren't sure if the sun kills or just weakens them?" 

"Judging by the continuing tracks, I'd say it just weakens them," he guessed. They continued on wordless for a bit. 

"So," Tidus said after a time, "what do you think of that Seymour guy?" 

Lulu grinned. "I think that 'guy' is fairly impressive." She watched Tidus begin to climb an eight-foot high embankment in their path. "He's a powerful mage and summoner," she added, "and is more than a little attractive." 

"I don't know," Tidus deferred, scrambling over the lip of the precipice, "I think his voice sounds a lot like Winnie the Pooh's, and I never found _him_ impressive." 

"Who is Winnie the Pooh?" Lulu asked as Tidus reached a hand down to her. She grasped it and began making her way upward with his assistance. 

"Well," Tidus grunted, hauling her up, "he's a bear." 

"A bear?" Her left foot slipped and he reached hastily for her other hand. 

"Gotcha." He heaved back, lending her as much support as he could as she scampered past the edge of the outcropping. Lulu stumbled, bowling him over. They both collapsed, backwards for him, forwards for her. Tidus grinned idiotically as she felt relief wash over her. 

"So," she said langorously, her face two inches from his, "do you like to talk to....bears?" By this point her voice had grown ridiculously sensual. The smile vanished from the blitzer's face. "I...love....bears," she added, every consonant dripping ever so slowly off her tongue, breath gently wheezing out her mouth. Now he began to look panicked. 

"Uhh," he replied. "Uhuuuh..." 

Laughing heartily, she rolled off the stunned young man and brought herself gracefully to her feet. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, heaving himself up. "That was hiliarious." Tidus began following the path once again. 

"So," she asked, "can bears talk in your Zanark--" 

"Heads up!" Tidus shouted, tackling her to the ground as a black form swooped past her. Lulu grunted as she got to her feet---the second time in as many minutes. "What was that?" 

"It's one of them!" the blitzer answered. 

"Correction," said a strange voice. "It's all three of us." 

"I'm trembling," Lulu mocked as she looked forward at the three pallid forms. Two men and a woman with the same red eyes and from what she could see, pointed teeth, faced them. "So, _all_ three of you?" She turned to her nearby friend. "That would seem to indicate that there are no more of them, wouldn't it?" 

"Seems like it to me, 'Lu," Tidus replied, unsheathing his sword. "Do you want to take them all at once, or shall we have some fun with them first?" She wondered if his bravado was as false as her own. "Too bad my sword's not made of silver," he told her, "it'd rip through their flesh like it was...umm...something really flimsy." 

"Enough!" called the taller male vampire, leaping at Tidus. Lulu skittered backwards as her companion swung his father's sword at an upwards angle, severing the vampire's head from its shoulders. She wondered if the monster was dead, but it appeared he was at least out of the fight as his headless body slumped to the wet dirt. She flung Mog out wide at the remaining man as Tidus faced the woman, determined, no doubt to keep her out of Lulu's way as the mage began preparation for her spellcasting. 

Lulu screamed as the spiritual energy flooded through her body. Fire burst forth as she faced her palms forward, engulfing the second vampire just as it had the one on the doomed boat. She heard Tidus shout a warning just before a pair of rough hands caught her shoulders, spinning her sideways. She felt the steamy breath on her neck as the vampire hissed. The moment seemed to last forever as she braced herself for the sharp pain. She swore that she'd never turn against her friend, even in undeath, although he probably wouldn't let her rise again, anyway. A crunch and a howl of pain shook her out of her reverie. 

Rolling to the side, she saw that her friend had attempted, perhaps successfully, to save her. Tidus had apprently intended to deliver the vampire a crushing blow to the jaw, but his fist had ended up directly between the monster's fangs, lodged painfully into the two elongated canines. "Down!" she called, hoping her friend could understand her intention as she whipped up another fireball. The veteran blitzer leapt backward, head over heels, as the mystical blaze collided with their final foe, consuming her cursed flesh all too quickly. 

Their eyes met, both panting with exertion. "You all right?" She asked first. 

He nodded, looking toward the headless body of the third vampire lying nearby. "Better make sure of that one," he said. 

Nodding, she flamed this corpse as well. "Is your hand okay?" 

Tidus shook his head both ways quickly. "I'm not sure? Do you think I'm becoming...a vampire?" He opened his mouth for her, displaying his teeth. 

"Doesn't look like it," she responded, "but if you want I can torch your hand." She shot him an evil look. "Just to make sure, you understand." 

"Shut up," he said firmly, walking back towards the Moonflow. "Should've let the vampire get her," he muttered. 

*** 

_"That's _it_?" the old blitzer demanded. _

"What are you laughing at, old man?" 

Jecht put his imagined hands to his equally imaginary face. "Do you think I'm becoming...A VAMPIRE_?!!!" He collapsed in gales of harsh laughter. "What was the point of that story, anyway? To prove you're a pansy? I already knew that!" _

"It's not funny." 

Jecht slapped his knee. "I beg to differ." 

His son's eyes darkened. "It's not_. Lulu could be in serious trouble." Jecht looked to Tidus for signs of mirth, but none were evident. He tried to use his worldsight to espy the black mage's whereabouts, but was unable to penetrate a thick mist hanging 'round her._

  
  
  
  


END PART TWO   
  



	3. Part Three

  


Thirst Unabated 

  
  
Part Three   
by Aaron D. Roberts

* * *

Lulu growled as she threw a fireball at a clockwise angle. The vampire yelled as he burst into flame, though the scream faded when he crumbled into dust. Reacting to some sixth sense, she lunged to the right just as another of her undead foes launched an attack from behind. "Bastards," she grunted, grateful that the midafternoon sun was still strong, weakening her foes demonic strength. 

"There's no need for such language," another damned vampire said, crawling from another of the newly-reconstructed huts in Killika. The city was actually looking a lot better, except for the hordes of undead that held it in a grip of terror. 

"I find it hard to quibble about the propriety of my language when I'm faced with several dozen monsters who are trying so very hard to kill me," Lulu said, frying another two vampires who were attempting to noisily sneak up on her. The people of Kilika, those who hadn't yet been turned or killed, were cowering in their huts, after Lulu had informed them earlier that no vampire could enter their home unless invited. 

"One should always be concerned with proprieties," the vampire said, rubbing a gold medallion on his ornate purple robes, then returning it to its place of honor in the center of his chest. 

Two more vampires approached Lulu, one of whom was, or had been, a child. Lulu shoved her pity and disgust into a remote corner of her mind, then drew a circle of flame around herself which enveloped the two other vampires. "Friends of yours, I assume," she told to the smartly-dressed vampire, whom she had taken to be the leader of her foes. 

The vampire rolled his red eyes. "'Friends' is such a relative term," he lamented, fiddling with something in his hands that Lulu couldn't quite identify. 

She shrugged as she looked around, and seeing no other vampires around, she said, "Finding a man as well-spoken and polite as you is quite the rarity these days, but I hope you'll forgive me if I feel I have no choice but to...well, incinerate you." She raised her right palm and summoned forth the usual magical energies. 

The well-dressed vampire cackled harshly. "Of course I don't mind, my dear, but---" at this he raised his own hand and a spout of water erupted from thin air, quenching Lulu's magical flame. "I hope that you'll forgive _me_ if I have other plans." 

That was great. That was just _perfect_. Just what she needed, in fact. A vampire who could use magic. 

_"She needs some help!" Tidus shouted plainly. _

"She does not," Auron said with conviction. "And even if she did, we could not provide it." 

To an uninformed bystander, looking upon this scene, in the afterlife, the Farplane, or whatever one might term it, the four men would have been standing together, side-by-side, looking at nothing. In truth, each man was using his worldsight to view the situation Lulu now found herself in, though it was likely that each saw the scene in a slightly different way, from a slightly different angle. 

"This sucks," Jecht said. "What good does it do to see this crap if we can't do anything about it?" 

Braska smiled. "Mostly, those who are new to the Farplane use the worldsight often. I only used it to check on Yuna four or five times, myself, although, I must admit, I was spending a great deal of time getting re-acquainted with my wife." 

Tidus grumbled something under his breath. 

"What was that?!" Jecht demanded. 

"Nothing." 

"Come on, spit it out!" 

"Have you even seen_ her since you finally got here?" _

Jecht stomped on the imagined ground. "I don't wanna hear it! What business is it of yours, anyway?" 

"She's my mom, that what business it is of mine! She died pining away for you, but you were fine, weren't you Dad? You just had fun bouncing around the world with your new friends---" 

"That's right," Jecht said, his voice dripping contempt. "Let it all out. Don't hold anything back." 

Auron kept silent, as he was inclined to do, as the father and son continued their shouting match. He'd sat through several similar occurrences since his death, and had experienced even more complaints from each about the other while he still walked the earth. Having heard both sides of the argument backwards and forwards, he concentrated his attention on what was going on in Spira rather than in his immediate presence. 

In fact, Auron thought, Lulu was holding her own quite well against the vampire mage. She almost seemed to be enjoying herself; he knew that she hadn't been tested magically in some time. From what Tidus and Jecht had explained to him about vampires, Auron guessed that the one Lulu was currently facing was one of the older ones, perhaps even one of the vampire elders. 

"---and you'd never take me out for pizza. All the other kids' fathers would take them_ out for pizza---" _

"Would you forget about the $#&ing pizza? It's not like we never did anything together..." 

"Oh, right, I forgot about those times you'd try to hit me with the blitzball!" 

"For cryin' out loud, I wasn't aiming_ for your head---" _

Oh. This was interesting. Lulu had set up a magical barrier around herself to reflect the vampire's spells back at him. Auron sniffed. She must have been using this as a delaying tactic. The vampire wouldn't risk using fire under normal circumstances, and he definitely wouldn't use it now. Auron wondered what Lulu had in mind. 

Tidus was talking to Braska now. "He'd have loads of TV interviews, but would he ever let me go on? NOOO! I had to stand under the camera, or behind it or something, like he was ashamed of me!" 

"I didn't want you tearing up on television!" Jecht shot back. "Braska, wouldn't you be embarrassed if your_ kid started crying while you were on television?" _

"That never really came up," Braska said. "Most people didn't want to interview me until after I'd died." 

Auron tried to ignore the din as he focused in on Lulu's batrle. Now she was trying to rely on her MiniMog to do her work for her. The grizzled veteran could tell that Lulu had linked its element to fire as it blasted away on the vampire's legs, but its attack wasn't quite effective. 

"After you died it was even worse! Oh, there's Jecht's kid---he'll never be as good as his old man!" 

"And you never were, were you?" 

"Hey!! Who's the one who beat Sin, here, anyway?!" 

"Actually," Braska interrupted, "I also--- 

"I mean, beat him and he stayed_ dead!" _

Lulu was in trouble now. Auron could see that the vampire had found away around her shield. The mage was thrown back by the force of lightning, and the vampire was now creeping up on her, no doubt intending to feed... Auron considered alerting the others to this situation, but decided there was no need. There was no way any of them could be resurrected, after all, and even if there had been, two of their number had never really existed, anyway. Just as the vampire was about to latch his jaws onto Lulu's powder white neck, an glowing orange projectile hit him in the back. The vampire's arms flailed as tongues of fire erupted from his back, then nothing was left of him save a pile of dust. 

"In case you were wondering," Auron said to his deceased friends, "all of the vampires are now dead." 

"They were always_ dead, Auron," Tidus said irritably. "Oh, I see." _

"How'd we miss that?" Jecht said as he re-focused his worldsight. 

Braska and Auron each kept their silence. 

Lulu groaned, rubbing her forehead as she tried to sit up. 

"Dose fiends, they really pack a punch, ya?" 

Great. She owed her life to Wakka. Again. 

"I dunno, somet'ing seemed...kinda funny about them, though." 

"They weren't fiends," Lulu said, accepting Wakka's help as she stood up, "they were vampires." 

"Ya, vampires. Good thing I brought the ol' Fireball, ya?" 

"Good thing." Lulu removed the handkerchief from her pouch and wiped some of the dirt off her face. "Weren't things a little busy at 'Wakka's Place?'" 

"Things are never too busy to help out someone you care about, ya? 'Sides, I think it's time I gave 'Wakka's Place' a rest. I got enough Gil ta last me a lifetime, ya? Maybe it's time I headed back to Besaid, helped 'em get things started up again there." 

"Sounds interesting," Lulu said, falling into step to Wakka's right as they headed back towards Killika port. Since Wakka _had_ just saved her life and all, it only seemed natural to slide her hand into his. And since they were already walking so close together anyway, it also seemed highly appropriate to rest her head on his shoulder as well. 

"Hmph," Jecht said. "Will ya look at that?" 

"I suppose they didn't need us, after all," said Braska. 

"Just as I suspected," Auron stated with assurance. "Things took care of themselves." 

"It's funny, though," Tidus said, scratching his chin. "I always thought 'Lu had a thing for me_..." _

The other three men looked at him incredulously. 

"What?" Tidus asked.

* * *

RETURN 


End file.
